


when the next one's made

by yamadadzawa



Series: The World Makes No Promises, But People Sure Do [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: AU- the world makes no promises but people sure do, Ace is an infant and doesn't do much either, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Mentioned Gol D. Roger, Mother-Son Relationship, Promises, Rayleigh doesn't do much except sit in the background and be sad, snippet to a longer project
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:54:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28265001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yamadadzawa/pseuds/yamadadzawa
Summary: Unlike Roger, Rouge doesn't ask him for anything.
Relationships: Gol D. Roger/Portgas D. Rouge, Monkey D. Garp & Portgas D. Rouge
Series: The World Makes No Promises, But People Sure Do [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2070651
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set in an AU where Rayleigh raises Ace and a lot of things change but family doesn't. 
> 
> This is really short and preclude of the series I'm planning, but I have feelings about Garp and Portgas D. Rouge. I'm thinking of making a series that's basically Ace's life without daddy issues, but this here is just Garp dealing. The title is from Ladder Song by Bright Eyes (there's also a Lorde rewrite of the same name). 
> 
> One Piece kind of took my heart so here's my first ever fanfic lol

Unlike Roger, Rouge doesn't ask him for anything. At least not directly. Garp's loosely made plans to ferry both mother and child to Dawn unravels when he meets Silvers Rayleigh in Baterilla with grief written in his every feature. The Dark King sits at the bedside of a woman cradling a child in her arms. Rayleigh spares him a glance, but remains seated and Garp feels the promise that Roger had asked of him (that he never agreed to or refused, but they both knew he'd try to fulfill) like a grip on his heart when his eyes land on a woman whose presence he felt waning with his haki and the newborn who should've been by all rights at least a year old. A child that could easily fit in the palm of his hand. He could remember when he was a younger man and he held his own son who was so much smaller than the man he is now, but weighed so much more than any responsibility or person had the right to. He spares a thought to how Dragon might have turned out if his palms were more used to cradling infants rather than cannonballs. He's pulled out his thoughts as Portgas D. Rouge addresses him with her own eyes still on her child.

"Roger had once said that the only Marine he’d let take him was you. Said you were a good man," her voice betraying nothing of what she thought of that statement. "Almost two years ago, he said you’d keep my baby safe no matter what name he had or whose blood flowed in his veins,” this she said like a question and a dare. _Will you keep my son safe? Will you defy your orders for a promise with a dead man? Will you condemn an infant and call it justice?_

“Gol D. Ace," She continues. "He’ll be stubborn like his parents,” she looks up at them for the first time since he entered. She speaks her words with the same certainty that Roger did, like they asked the universe for its truths and were answered. "He will be happy and he will be safe, until he decides that safety pales in comparison to freedom." Garp huffs, like any D could choose safety, much less Roger's son.

And despite the dwindling of her presence, Rouge's Will remained blazing like a wildfire as she finishes, “And no matter the distance or time he will know that he is loved.”

She asks nothing of him as she kisses her son with lidded eyes while a large feline nuzzles her side. She asks nothing of him as she hands her child over to Rayleigh. She asks nothing of him as she stares at him with assessing brown eyes before nodding like a decree was acknowledged, regal in the peeking dawn.

She asks nothing of him and yet, he feels the promise all the same.


	2. as it is willed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> same scene from Rouge's POV.  
> I started rewriting the actual story, but wanted to hold myself accountable to actually write and publish more this year so I posted this. Let me know what y'all think, also rip because this scene is most def also written in Rayleigh's POV. lol I can always plot a story, but when it comes down to which POV to write in it's silence.

Rouge holds Ace, her fingers outlining the curve of a pudgy cheek and the slope of his nose, her gaze fixed on the center of her universe, their son. “Roger had once said that the only Marine he’d let take him would be you. Said you were a good man.” For all that she travelled both with and without the Roger Pirates, Garp and her had never crossed paths until now. “Almost two years ago, he said you’d keep my baby safe no matter what name he had or whose blood flowed in his veins.”

A fatigue creeps into her awareness. It was sort of funny, that even with how long she carried this child in her womb, now all that she wants to do is carry him in her arms. Hide him from the hate of the world who wants him dead the same way that they did Roger. She plays with his tufts of dark hair.  
“Gol D. Ace, he’ll be stubborn like his parents,” she muses.

Rouge pulls her gaze from her baby boy and looks up to the marine and pirate by her bed. Fondness softens Rayleigh’s eyes and grief etches lines on his face. She remembers teasing him once that one day his crew would help him put silver in his hair to match his name. He had joked back that he would keep it blond out of sheer will. She feels as though he’s cheated her somehow with his short cut hair still growing blonde. Her mouth tilts to a smile. He was stubborn bastard when he wanted to be.

These are the men who will have her son’s fate in their hands when hers will grow slack and until her baby will grow strong enough to hold it in his own.

“He will be happy,” she says with certainty and faith as her gaze meets one of her oldest friends. She turns to the marine. “And he will be safe, until he decides that safety pales in comparison to freedom.”

The men huff, all too used to how some Wills can never be constrained. She turns back to her son and finishes her declaration like a command to the universe and to the dawn that’s yet to come. The dawn that she and Roger were too early to see.

“And no matter the distance or time he will know that he is loved.”

Rouge feels Rose nudge at her arm, her yellow eyes on the sleeping baby. The bobcat takes a moment to sniff at Ace before she nuzzles their faces against each other, and Rouge smiles knowing that Ace has one more person looking out for him. She doesn’t realize she closed her eyes until Rose shifts to cover both mother and child with her warmth. The men are silent when she presses a kiss to her son’s head and hands him to Rayleigh. She looks to Garp, the marine that her lover fought against, alongside of, and who he had trusted. She nods to herself as she takes in her son’s unlikely ally and lets the first dawn of the new year warm her for the last time. She has lived a life of adventure and discovery and freedom and love. She looks at her child and doesn’t know if she believes in heaven or hell, she could swear that she’s seen both on this earth already but knows that she’ll watch over him as he grows and makes a storm of his own. Smiling, she closes her eyes with the sun’s warmth holding her like Roger and opens her eyes to his arms around her.

“My Love,” He says with a smile. Not the one that he’s known for, it’s too gentle for that, but it’s one she knows well.


End file.
